It’s Official: Ecuadorian Dhruv Crash By Pilot Error

It’s what even the Ecuadorian air chief said on the day of the crash. And as reported consistently here on LiveFist, it was indeed cyclic saturation caused by a hard left by the pilots that caused the Dhruv to rapidly lose altitude, tip over and go down. Sources say that the conclusion was drawn as much from the analysis in the US of the FDR/CVR as from the direct testimony of the pilots of the crashed chopper and the one flying directly behind them. More details soon. For now, the HAL folks in Quito can breathe just that little bit easier. But only just.

11 Comments

Excellent news. Seems you were spot on. BTW can you post if not the articles then links to Ecuadorian news reports that confirm this. They were pretty harsh on the Dhruv before any analysis was complete, will the Ecuadorian media give the issue an honest burial?

Anonymous

Anonymous

Not a word of apology in the South American press. All this negative publicity has NOT been countered by HAL. If they are serious about building their reputation as a quality provider, they better step up and hire a real good PR firm.

India learnt hard lessons on Capitol Hill by not hiring good lobbyists; it is time that the DPSUs also learn from the earlier mistakes. There is only one way to win the war of international psy-ops — by providing a dedicated physical presence that will advertise, spin, and deify HAL capabilities.

On a tangential sidenote, with your kind permission: China has a team of nearly 1,500 professionals who maintain an online presence and enforce ER/EW doctrine. India is well and truly a generation behind in even simple tactical maneuvers such as projecting its strength in a favorable light through dedicated volunteer teams (what happens now is a bunch of folks blathering without a script). The MoD could easily sign up say 5,000 teenagers and provide them with specific avenues to man (Facebook/Defense Fora, for instance). Given even decent oratorial skills and assignments specific to their areas, these can effectively counter -ve publicity and generate a lot more positive interest. Finally, why doesn't India have anything close to a DEF CON specific to national interests? I'm sure a large number of engineering college students would be far more proficient at EW given appropriate training (yes, I know they already can, but how about bringing together an organized forum from where future specialists can be recruited and groomed?)

Karupaswamy

Even a country like Ecuador is has signed a proper contract to protect it against manufacturing defects and are threatening to return the the Helicopters back to HAL if found defective. Why is our MoD babus not signing such contracts with legally binding penalty clauses for delays and defects. Ex the Hawk crash where some rusty parts were found in the crashed plane. Why are we not getting a replacement plane or our money back. This kind of agreements like in Gorshkov by the Govt Sounds fishy. Looks like our tax money is being squandered off & our defense capabilities compromised by these babus for getting their share of kickbacks.